The Great Famine and the Irish Diaspora in America

edited by Arthur Gribben

Details

Description

Between 1845 and 1855, nearly 1.5 million Irish women, men, and children sailed to America to escape the Great Famine, triggered by successive years of potato blight. The famine and resulting emigration had a profound impact not only on the history of Ireland, but on that of England and North America as well. This volume of original essays commemorates the 150th anniversary of these epochal events and sheds new light on both the consequences of the famine and experience of the Irish in America.

Reviews

"This book is a major contribution to its field. It contains important details that are missing from many of the previous works on the subject of the famine. The scholarship is sound, and is often based on primary sources that have never been examined in this context before. The data are consistently compelling, fresh, and well documented. . . . Any college with an Irish studies program will find the book indispensable."—Mary Ellen Cohane, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

"A fascinating collection of essays that reveals, in often unexpected ways, the effects of the Irish famine on both sides of the Atlantic. Ranging from the loss of life to the loss of music among the Irish peasantry, from the pages of the Dublin University Magazine to the pages of American newspapers, from Chef Alex Soyer's famine soup to the famine graves at Grosse Ile, from Irish memory to Irish American rage, this scholarly but readable book provides us with the broadest understanding to date of this far-reaching event."—William H. Williams, Author of 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream

Author

Arthur Gribben teaches English at California State University, Northridge.

Ruth-Ann M. Harris is adjunct professor of history and Irish studies at Boston College.